The Midlife Revolution Has Arrived. Breaking Down Why 50 Isn't the New 30 — It's Better (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

When you’re young, midlife feels like an abstract and distant concept. Something you know you’ll hit one day, even if you can’t fully picture it. Or don’t want to.

In my early 20s – around the time theSpice Girlswere topping the charts — the term “middle age” was associated with nylon nightgowns and comfortable shoes, with bald patches and terrible music, with Marge Simpson, love handles and a bewildering obsession with what the neighbors were up to.

That wasn’t going to happen to us … was it?

In fact, today’s 40- and 50-something women do look and feel different from their mothers at the same age. Old ideas about this life stage are undergoing something of a rebrand.

Far from sounding the death knell of your health, looks, libido — and fun in general – there is a growing recognition that these years are precisely the moment to start living your best life. Better still, no “crisis” is needed to get there.

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AsKate Winsletsaid in a recent BBC interview: “I’m 47. A lot of women come into their 40s thinking this is the beginning of the decline. Things start to change and fade and slide in directions that I don’t want them to. I’ve just decided: No. We becomemorewoman,morepowerful,moresexy. We grow into ourselves. We have the opportunity to speak our mind and not be afraid of what people think of us.”

Until recently, inspiring representations of women over 40 in fiction or on screen were thin on the ground. But the middle-aged heroine is having a moment – and, far from glossing over her age, it’s front and center of the story.

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Meanwhile, on social media, there is a growing population of midlife influencers – covering everything from fashion and makeup to fitness and travel – who don’t disguise their age but fully embrace it.  Jen Polt, on Instagram as@makingupforglossedtime, inspires women to “get bolder as you get older,” while designer Folake Kuye Huntoon (@stylepantryon Instagram) — whose biography describes her as “menopausal … embracing a new era, unapologetically” provides her effortlessly stylish take on fashion for the over-40s. Far from being “past your best,” these influencers show that midlife can be a time to thrive.

It is no coincidence that this optimistic wave of midlife-focused content is happening alongside a long-overdue increase in awareness about menopause. It seems hard to believe that not so long ago something affecting more than 50 percent of the population was barely even talked about. But thanks to Oprah, Dr. Mary Claire Haver and many others. it’s now firmly on the agenda and being comprehensively destigmatized.

In Naomi Watts’ new bookDare I Say It, she discusses how, at 36 — having just filmedKing Kongand about to start a family — she was told she was on the brink of menopause. And she’s not the only one proudly owning the topic.

“A few years ago, if I told someone I was writing a book about menopause, I’d get sideways glances or an awkward silence,” says Tamsen Fadal, whose own book,How to Menopauseis out in March. “It was a topic whispered about, something we were expected to endure quietly. Now, women will walk up to me and, before even introducing themselves, tell me they’re in perimenopause or menopause! Women are tired of struggling through this phase of life without answers, research and support. The shift we’re seeing isn’t just about awareness, it’s about empowerment. We’re demanding solutions, reclaiming our energy, confidence and joy.”

None of this is necessarily aboutdefyingyour age, but owning it, enhancing the experience of it and celebrating the best parts. Some have always been there; but reaching this age can bring perspective, confidence and those joyous long friendships that have sustained many of us through several decades.

But others represent a tangible shift.  As urogynecologist and surgeonDr. Jocelyn Fitzgeraldrecently posted on Instagram: “Peri- and menopausal women are the single richest and most educated generation of women that has ever existed. You think they are going to accept the frail, incontinent fate of their mothers and grandmothers? Think again.”

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There is an increasing realization that what many women previously thought of as a  “crisis” that comes in midlife might simply be an opportunity to shift priorities and focus on our health.

Dr. Stacy Sims, an internationally-renowned exercise physiologist and nutrition scientist, describes the way we have started to look at midlife in recent years as, “a sociocultural shift.”

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“Women in our age bracket grew up with the ideology that we can do or be anything . . . but only until we are 40, then we ‘age out,’” she says. “Talking about periods and menstrual cycles has become less taboo and it follows that women in their 40s onwards are now facing a ‘wtf’ moment in their health. This has opened up the conversations around peri- and post-menopause, allowing women to find empowerment through conversations, experiences and the global swell of awareness. It is fabulous to see.”

This feeds into the idea of our 40s and 50s as just the start of a stunning second act, offering opportunities that were not forthcoming previously. That’s why so many of us cheered from the sidelines as Sophie Ellis Bextor enjoyed a midlife career renaissance withMurder on The Dancefloorand whenDemi Moore received her first Oscar nominationforThe Substanceat 59.

That’s why I’m hopeful that for our daughters, middle age is not the uninspiring prospect it once was. Though I do have a confession: those comfortable shoes weren’t a bad idea after all.

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source: people.com